Establishement: The Group of 77 (G-77) was established on 15 June 1964 by seventy-seven developing countries signatories of the “Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries” issued at the end of the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNCTAD in Geneva.
Beginning with the first “Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 77 in Algiers (Algeria) on 10 – 25 October 1967, which adopted the Charter of Algiers”, a permanent institutional structure gradually developed which led to the creation of Chapters of the Group of 77 with Liaison offices in Geneva (UNCTAD), Nairobi (UNEP), Paris (UNESCO), Rome (FAO/IFAD), Vienna (UNIDO), and the Group of 24 (G-24) in Washington, D.C. (IMF and World Bank). Although the members of the G-77 have increased to 130 countries, the original name was retained because of its historic significance … (about 1/2).

About 2/2: … Aims: The Group of 77 is the largest intergovernmental organization of developing states in the United Nations, which provides the means for the countries of the South to articulate and promote their collective economic interests and enhance their joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues within the United Nations system, and promote South-South cooperation for development.

Structure:

The operation and modalities of work of the G-77 in the various Chapters have certain minimal features in common such as a similarity in membership, decision-making and certain operating methods. A Chairman, who acts as its spokesman, coordinates the Group’s action in each Chapter. The Chairmanship, which is the highest political body within the organizational structure of the Group of 77, rotates on a regional basis (between Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean) and is held for one year in all the Chapters. Currently the Republic of the Sudan holds the Chairmanship of the Group of 77 in New York for the year 2009. Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad is the Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Sudan to the United Nations and Chairman of the Group of 77 in New York.

The South Summit is the supreme decision-making body of the Group of 77. It is convened once in every five years. The First and the Second South Summits were held in Havana, Cuba, on 10 – 14 April 2000 and in Doha, Qatar, on 12 – 16 June 2005, respectively. In accordance with the principle of geographical rotation, the Third South Summit is due to be held in Africa in 2010.

The Annual Meeting of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Group of 77 is convened at the beginning of the regular session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. Periodically, Sectoral Ministerial Meetings in preparation for UNCTAD sessions and the General Conferences of UNIDO and UNESCO are convened. Special Ministerial Meetings are also called as needed such as on the occasion of the Group’s 25th anniversary (Caracas, June 1989), 30th anniversary (New York, June 1994), and 40th anniversary (Sao Paulo, Brazil, June 2004). Other Sectoral Ministerial Meetings in various fields of cooperation of interest to the Group are convened, in order to pursue South-South cooperation. Starting in 1995, the Group convened a series of sectoral meetings in the following fields:

Sectoral Review Meeting of the Group of 77 on Energy, Jakarta, Indonesia, 5 – 7 September 1995;

Open-ended Intergovernmental Study Group Workshop on the Trade and Development Bank, New York, 2 – 3 May 2005;

Group of Experts Meeting on Development Platform for the South, Kingston, Jamaica, 29 – 30 August 2005;

Meeting of the Ministers of Science and Technology of the Member States of the Group of 77, Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3 September 2006

In addition to the Sectoral Meetings, the Intergovernmental Follow-up and Coordination Committee on Economic Cooperation among Developing Countries (IFCC), which is a plenary body consisting of senior officials, meets once every two years to review the state of implementation of the Caracas Programme of Action (CPA) adopted by the Group of 77 in 1981 and the progress made in the implementation of the outcomes of the South Summits in the field of South-South cooperation.